Community
Ukraine, Peachtree Corners Connected by Family, Ministry
Resident recounts anguish of family fleeing war-torn country; non-profit shares details of mission work.
With the continued war in Ukraine, people all over the world are concerned about the fate of civilians who are finding themselves as collateral damage in Russia’s push to control the country. Many, however, have family and other loved ones still in Ukraine or struggling to find refuge in other countries.
One Peachtree Corners resident, Alan Kaplan, has been active on social media and other platforms educating his neighbors about the challenges. Most recently, he spoke to members and guests of the Peachtree Corners Business Association (PCBA) at its Business After Hours Speakers Series.
Kaplan’s in-laws are Ukrainian citizens. When the first attack occurred, the family had been prepared to leave their home in Kyiv, but so were thousands of others.
“I remember my wife Zhenia telling my sister-in-law to go and pack,” Kaplan told the crowd of nearly 50 attendees. “They thought it was an overreaction but about March 3, my sister-in-law (Irina) and my handicapped 14-year-old niece (Veronika) went to board a train for a 14-hour train ride to a western city in Ukraine.”
The crush of people was so great, his brother-in-law (Valentine) lifted the girl above the throng and waded through to get his wife and daughter on the train.
Kaplan’s mother-in-law (Lubov), who wasn’t ready to abandon her home, was convinced three days later to get on a bus out of the country. Fortunately for her, she missed the initial bus because what normally took 30 minutes from her house to get to this location was kind of tricky. It took three hours due to all the road checks and the traffic.
“The initial bus just dropped people at the border and you’d end up on another type of bus where they were distributed, typically to Romania or to different places,” said Kaplan.
“But the bus she ended up on was sponsored by a synagogue. And it went from one synagogue in Kyiv all the way to the capital of Moldova. So rather than being in a large evacuation refugee center, she ended up sharing a room with three other people in one of the classrooms in the synagogue.”
Although his mother-in-law was safe, the family didn’t have consistent communication with her, so they had no idea where she was. She was at the synagogue for 10 days.
“We knew that she was getting on a bus. We didn’t know where she would end up. We didn’t know where she was going,” Kaplan said. “Thankfully, we were able to keep in touch periodically by cell phone.”
Mass evacuations
Kaplan explained that at the time, the U.S. had no established refugee status for Ukrainians. Of course, his 82-year-old mother-in-law was welcomed to live with his family, but it wasn’t that simple.
“The United States still doesn’t have a good process in place to bring refugees here, particularly refugees with family members here,” he said. “We can sponsor them, bring them here and take care of them, but that really wasn’t in place, much less any social programs.”
Once in Moldova, Lubov was in contact with an Israeli consulate. “We were able to get her visa and the opportunity to go to Israel,” said Kaplan.
After 30 days in Israel, Lubov was eligible to receive a place to stay social service benefits to help support her in her new life. “She’ll have some means to be able to take care of herself. And she’ll have other programs available to her,” Kaplan explained.
Once she’s established in Israel, she can visit family in the United States for many months at a time and the Kaplans can go there to see her.
“So thankfully she’s now stable and in a great place,” said Kaplan.
Irina and Veronika, Kaplan’s sister-in-law and niece, are still in western Ukraine.
“We’ve been talking with them about making a change because I don’t think any of us fully understand the future of Ukraine,” he said. “What’s been holding her up is that her husband, my brother-in-law, can’t leave for a couple of reasons.”
Besides the manifests—most Ukrainian men ages 18 to 60 have been banned from leaving the country in anticipation that they may be called to fight—he has an elderly mother who is in extremely ill health and is in no condition to make the journey.
Kaplan teared up a little as he continued. “As difficult as this story is for my family personally, it’s one of the best stories there. Look at the people that are in the towns that can’t get out. They don’t have water. They don’t have electricity. That’s a true tragedy. We’re lucky.”
He added, “We’re grateful for everybody coming together in this situation. … I appreciate everybody’s care and focus on what’s going on.”
Besides Kaplan’s account of his family’s peril, PCBA invited Cartee Bales, Senior Director of Field Operations for Gwinnett County-based Mission To the World (MTW), to share his recent experiences after returning in late March from the Ukrainian region where he was providing compassionate relief for those impacted there.
Mission of compassion, caring
Bales said he was all too familiar with the tragedies suffered in Ukraine right now. He had returned to the U.S. less than a week before attending the PCBA event on Thursday, March 31.
“There is incredible suffering that’s taking place (in Ukraine) right now,” he said. “But it’s a beautiful heartbreak because so many people are engaging to help rescue people and to help them begin to rebuild their lives.”
As an arm of the Presbyterian Church in America, Mission To The World has 600-plus people working at countries throughout the world.
“We’re doing everything from training pastors and starting seminaries and planting churches to running large AIDS/HIV clinics, running anti-sex trafficking programs… and a number of other things that address suffering in the world,” said Bales.
Ukraine is now one of those places, as people stream out from ground and missile attacks. Even though, unlike Kaplan, his family isn’t personally affected, it still takes a toll on the human spirit.
Bales said it’s heartbreaking to see “the flow of people with their one (suitcase)—and that’s if they’re allowed to take their possessions,” he said.
He saw them not only in Ukraine but also wandering the streets of places like Bucharest, Krakow and Warsaw, having escaped the war, but not knowing the next chapter of their fate.
“We’ve had teams working in the region in Ukraine and Russia for decades. And when Russia invaded Ukraine, which was unexpected until it finally happened, we began forming caravans of people in their cars—and in any kind of vehicle—to go together,” he said.
Because of rationing, each motorist was allowed only three liters of petrol a day—that’s less than a gallon. And the journey out of the country or to a safer part of the country was often hours away.
“By the time we get to a border crossing, it’s nine to 12 hours in line just to get across,” Bales added.
Homeless refugees
Bales’ team made it into Lviv and rented every space they could find in every house and every hotel. They discovered that many who fled left keys to their home with a note saying anyone was welcome to use it.
“We’ve been fortunate to take advantage of that,” said Bales. “And those were just temporary stops. Because people then need to get out of the way. So our teams in Krakow have been getting supplies that are needed in Ukraine.”
And the vans aren’t just delivering supplies; they are also evacuating people who want to leave.
“It’s beautiful to see how the world is coming together, standing there on the border and seeing Israel and Ireland and India and USA and all these countries with hot food and clothes, a safe shelter for women and children, and toys for kids just to help them begin rebuilding what’s been lost,” said Bales.
To help keep the mission going, PCBA donated $500 to MTW and included a one-year membership to the association.
“When we have these opportunities for things that go beyond our business networking, it reinforces these relationships that were built out of business. Our professional relationships are as much about the people as they are about the businesses, and I’ve never seen a business succeed without community,” said PCBA President Lisa Proctor.
That’s why she was excited to bring Kaplan and Bales to the mixer. She wanted to emphasize that the community is just around the corner as well as half a world away.
Information about PCBA: peachtreecornersba.com
Information about Mission To The World’s involvement in Ukraine: mtw.org/ukraine-crisis.
Not long after the incorporation of Peachtree Corners in 2012, city leaders envisioned an arts council that would ensure local arts and culture were given necessary attention. The Peachtree Corners Arts Council, now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, was established in 2016 to bring that vision to life by creating an Arts & Culture Master Plan and Public Art Initiative program for the city.
The council facilitates public art projects, such as a soon-to-be-completed mural on Peachtree Corners Circle by artist Jonathan Bidwell. With another major endeavor, the independently funded Debbie Mason Memorial Garden, also nearing completion, Peachtree Corners Magazine caught up with the organization — now called Peachtree Corners Arts Inc. (PTC Arts) — to learn more about the projects as well as the future of arts and culture in our city.
Debbie Mason Memorial Garden
The Debbie Mason Memorial Garden is an aesthetic and contemplative garden space nestled in an area of the Peachtree Corners Botanical Garden near Town Center. A group of Peachtree Corners residents, with a shared love for the city’s first first lady and an appreciation for all that she has done for the city, formed the Debbie Mason Memorial Committee (DMMC) to raise funds to build the oasis that will delight with flowering color each season.
The goal of the DMMC is to preserve Mason’s memory by transforming a space that will offer Peachtree Corners residents a quiet place to reflect, connect and rejuvenate among vibrant colored seasonal plantings and mosaic tiled artwork, according to the PTC Arts website.
Although the Debbie Mason Memorial Garden falls under the umbrella of PTC Arts Inc., it had its own committee in charge of design and fundraising goals.
“When they started getting going, because they were creating an artistic kind of installation in the city and were going to raise the funds for it, they worked with our council for ideas and input on the plan that they ultimately came up with,” said Marcia Catterall, a member of PTC Arts. “They really ran independently with that. Primarily, they used us as the nonprofit vehicle to raise the funds.”
Independent of PTC Arts, DMMC created all of its own publicity and had a committee tasked with handling all of the fundraising.
Building a master plan
Although the objective of PTC Arts Inc. is simple, the execution can be complicated.
“We had our hands in numerous things,” said Catterall. “We’ve created the city’s arts and culture master plan. We created a public art initiative. Our goal was to think about all of the ways that arts and cultural activities could impact the city and then to help facilitate the creation and the installation of arts and culture in the city.”
The initiative, along with the master plan, took up the first several years of the council’s efforts. The master plan was formalized and officially adopted in 2018.
According to city records, “The resolution requires developers to meet with the Peachtree Corners Arts Council to discuss possibilities for public art on their property. Developers would also be asked to voluntarily set aside one percent of their project costs for public art, either by including public art on their site or contributing money to a public art fund administered by the city.”
“This Public Art Initiative and Vision Map is intended to help city officials, developers and the community at large visualize and implement the city’s public art future. It outlines a vision for public art, offers an inventory of opportunities for public art throughout the city and provides background on the types of projects that should be encouraged and prioritized,” the records continued.
Early efforts of the council included designing activities for the Town Green and facilitating the use of public spaces for a variety of arts and cultural activities.
“One of the things that we helped with initially was designing some of the activities and talking about how to host activities on the Town Green,” said Catterall. “Now that’s all handled separately by the city, but we were sort of the sounding board and created a lot of the ideas and the thoughts about how Town Green was to be used.”
The mural project and what’s ahead
The first big art installation project initiated from beginning to end by the council is a mural on the retaining wall at Peachtree Corners Circle.
“That’s going to be our first big project that we’ve started — soup to nuts — and have run with completely on our own,” said Catterall.
Jonathan Bidwell, a well-known artist out of Asheville, North Carolina is creating the mural, having designed several others in the past.
“He designed, for example, the playful foxes on the Social Fox Brewing Company in downtown Norcross,” she said. “He’ll be covering the big, long retaining wall that will border part of the Botanical Garden Walk around the Town Center area. And it will actually be near the Debbie Mason Memorial Garden.”
Funding for the mural project was covered partly through business donations.
“Part of our arts and culture master plan is to ask businesses, when they either develop or open up a new business, to donate 1% of their project value towards public art on their property or to give that to us,” Catterall said. “So, this is being funded mostly through the donation from QuickTrip’s new development.”
Since the company didn’t have a particular art installation in mind for its property, it allowed the money to go toward an effort elsewhere in the city.
The mural’s background colors were scheduled to be painted by the end of September with the remaining details to be completed by late October, in time for the ribbon cutting for the Debbie Mason Garden. That event is set for 11 a.m. on October 26.
For more information about Peachtree Corners Arts Inc., the mural or the Debbie Mason Memorial Garden, visit ptcarts.org.
You can read this article in the October/November issue of Peachtree Corners Magazine.
The Gwinnett County Public Library is now accepting applications for its next New Start Entrepreneurship Incubator Program (NSEI).
NSEI provides business education for formerly incarcerated individuals through in-person classes, online coursework and a robust network of mentors and community partners. NSEI is specifically geared towards the reentry population, which, in Georgia, is disproportionately minority populations and people of color.
This six-month course is designed to help community members who have served time in jail or prison create and sustain their own businesses.
“Formerly incarcerated individuals are an overlooked population of aspiring entrepreneurs, often lacking the means, access and support to launch a small business successfully,” said Charles Pace, executive director of the Gwinnett County Public Library.
About the program
NSEI originated as a grant project in 2021, funded by Google in partnership with the American Library Association.
Coordinated by a team of five library staff members, NSEI includes cohorts of 15 to 20 students who attend monthly presentations by local business experts on topics such as finance, marketing, licensing and writing a business plan. Following each meeting, participants complete assigned online coursework and receive one-on-one support from experienced small business mentors. The library provides free laptops and Wi-Fi service to those who need them.
The program’s culmination occurs at Launchpad, where the aspiring entrepreneurs pitch their businesses to community business leaders.
As of this year, the program has graduated 35 entrepreneurs in four cohorts. And the Gwinnett County Public Library Foundation has awarded $8,000 in start-up funding through the Launchpad event.
For more information, visit gwinnettpl.org/adults/new-start-entrepreneurship-incubator.
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